/5eg/ - Fifth Edition General

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>no opening question

How about we all post location art that we'd like to feature in a session!

I'll dump some good shit

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>>48791880
Good, I'm glad humans are mechanically the best or second best. I don't want every single power gamer playing some exotic race.

Volo's guide is gonna unleash cancer, mark my words.

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And hey, why not a brief description of how you'd use it

>something for the party to stumble upon as they pass through a forest, or the place that missing children end up.

>>48792209
why are half of those people not wearing hats

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Have you ever seen Thieves' Cant used in a game?

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>Athletics/acrobatics checks aplenty as the players navigate precarious ledges in a ruined castle that a dragon is roosting in

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>see filename

>Where have all the unmarried men from the village gone?
>Do you hear that singing in the night, traveller? Don't go to it. Not even when they call you by the name your dead wife used to.

>>48792214
They are top tier for EVERY class, making them literally the most special race mechanically. They should be like every other race, good for some classes and builds but not for every single one. I'm running an all-human game right now and there everyone's variant human, but in a normal, multi-race game the PHB human options are both badly designed and balanced.

>>48792235
I imagine it getting used by rogues when they're gathering info from other unsavory types. There's generally no reason to spell out its use. A shame, perhaps, but I wouldn't call it a problem.

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>This is where I lost my ship, my crew, and my woman.
>That's awful, how did they die?
>Die? I lost them in a card game son.

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>>48792275
hey senpai, they're just suggestions to spice it up a little, you do whatever you please with them.

I find when I'm DM-ing it's always good to have one or two visual aids per session to help the less imaginative players out.

>You won't do well here unless your profession starts with a P. The only folks that thrive here are pickpockets, priests and prostitutes.
>Pugilist?
>Eh, I'll give you that one.

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>Probably some location in the Feywild, though the odds of my players going there any time soon are slim to none

>>48792264
Not really. People only swear by variant because you get a feat.

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>>48792332
ayy thanks for joining fampai

>Last session, my party of total newbies fought two dryads in a ruined tower, fluffed to look like this big cunt here, and more feral and animalistic. Like Pan from Pan's Labyrinth meets 28 days later.
>mfw the wizard cast sleep and the other 6 ganked them one at a time.

>it's game time
>had to skip last session because I (DM) had to work at an unusual time
>one player messages me 10 minutes before the session start and says he'll be at least 1.5h late
>other two are AWOL, offline on every messaging service
>yet another had to leave the group due to RL interfering with session times
>and the last one actually showed up on time

So we're both just sitting around doing FUCK AND ALL because HOLY SHIT HOW FUCKING HARD IS IT TO SHOW UP ON TIME YOU SHITTERS.

DMs, how do you deal with the urge to strangle your moron players?

>>48792233
>Have you ever seen Thieves' Cant used in a game?
Yeah, in the third session. Our party had just arrived in a standard criminal-run town, and the party rogue was looking for a contact of his. He used thieves' cant to ask a bartender where this contact of his was.

The bartender basically responded (in thieves' cant) by calling him a fucking idiot for wasting time using thieves' cant when he could've just asked straight up, which my cleric found amusing.

>>48792367
I watch Trailer Park Boys with the one who showed up. Works every time

Mearls has tweeted that the 5e PHB has sold more then the 3.0/3.5/4 PHB's individually

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>>48792264
>actually wanting a rainbow multicultural party free of hate
>mfw

Themed parties are the best, they also make for better stories. I would kill to DM an all dwarf, all ork, or even an all elf campaign.

>>48792455
>actually wanting a rainbow multicultural party free of hate
just cause its multicultural doesnt mean its free of hate.
The CoS party I DM has a Far Traveler Elf who hates inferior races (read: anything that's not elves) and a Tiefling who just hates people in general.

>>48792367
Start replacing them.They're honestly just leaving and trying in their own introverted autist way to be polite about it, by being flakes and just avoiding confrontation.

Also, play at your local hobby store or library, people generally don't like playing at some stranger's house until they know them.

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I've got an idea but I'm not sure if it would be fun, so I wanted to get some feedback on it.

I've got a Final Fantasy themed D&D 5e game coming up and I had an idea to give players crystal shards full of magical power that they can do a few things with:
>enchant a weapon or suit of armour, or upgrade a magical one to +1, +2, or +3
>create a magic item without having to pay obscene gold costs for rare materials
>open a sealed door to ancient treasure vaults, with on-the-spot generated treasure hordes
>trade with NPCs for rare and powerful items

Thoughts?

Magical darkness has very few things that can bypass it, right?

I fear if I use it enough, or at all, the DM will have all important NPCs conveniently having truesight or something to see through magical darkness.

I wouldn't care if it was 'they must activate an ability or use one of the very specific spells that disspell it' rather than 'you automatically see through', but the DM has a habit of making mary sue NPCs.

I'm already sure one or two major NPCs has truesight.

>>48792531
I would, but it's the 9th damn session and we're about to wrap up the starter module (probably 2-3 more sessions for that). Replacing them would mean starting a new campaign.
Just going to ask them all via our messaging service what time they would prefer for the sessions, since the current one obviously is a hindrance. If they're not answering they will get replaced.

I do feel bad for the dude who showed up though. He's a real stand-up guy and this is his first ever campaign of any RPG.

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Just played my first ever game at 22yo, fuck i wish i played this earlier
Pregenned a fighter with a longbow
Wanting to make a ranger

Good times

So /5eg/, I wanna make an eldritch knight.
EE and SCAG stuff isn't allowed at all, so what do you recommend for me for spells?

>>48792581
>Just going to ask them all via our messaging service what time they would prefer for the sessions

Do not do that over messages individually. Wait until they're all together and ask them as a group.

>start module
>12 sessions
What are you playing?

>>48792617
Shield for the "Oh, crap!" moments. Counterspell.

>>48792617
A new DM.

>>48792629
We're playing LMoP, but we had a long detour in Neverwinter where the party managed to get themselves tangled in some complicated plots (merchants vs. Zhents vs. Red Wizards vs. Uthgardt tribes).

I will just put up a post with "reply to stay playing" as part of the title. No reply? No game for you.

>>48792653
Can an EK even get Wish?

>>48792617
long range and aoe's with crowd control are useful.
Blade Ward is actually somewhat useful on an EK for tanking purposes.
Shield is always super A+
Utility spells and non DC spells are preferred

>>48792209
>go to old dwarven city
>sign out front that says ''no humans or elves allowed''
>half of the party has to wait outside

>>48792605
>ranger

>>48792617
It's a shame SCAG isn't allowed, because booming blade or green-flame-blade are much better at certain levels. Namely, levels 3 and 4. Levels 7, 8 and 9 and 10. Once you hit level 11 it's kind of a choice again.

Also, you lose 'absorb elements', which is a much-loved eldritch knight pick.

If you're an absolute min-maxer, stop what you're doing and don't go eldritch knight if you can't have your little toys.
If you're not... You'll be better than the arcane trickster who seems to think picking 'firebolt' and casting it instead of actually doing damage is a good idea. Shield is pretty much a given, as it's useful at all levels.
Unfortunately you won't get spells like fireball until a lot later while the real mages will be throwing them left right and centre.

Honestly there aren't a lot of must-haves, just must-avoids if you don't have EE or SCAG, save for 'shield'.

>>48792674
Bladeward is amazing, DMs are just little bitches about cantrip spam out of combat during marches.

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>>48792680
Oh I know what I'm in for with this party.
It also has two barbarians, one of which is a gnome, and a Beastmaster.
I've just never played am EKnight before and wanted to know what cool kinda stuff I could get.

>>48792715
not even a GM here but i would fully expect one of your traveling companions to axe you in the face after about three hours of constantly chanting *blade ward*

>>48792715
Any reasonable DM would say the same. Unless you know you're immediately aboutt o enter combat, taking such actions isn't allowed.

Otherwise, whenever you enter combat, EVERYBODY would be using the dodge action unless they're surprised until they get their first turn. Which would mean people with the highest initiative are kind of fucked.

The problem with bladeward is always

'Why use bladeward when you could use dodge?'

The only thing bladeward gives you is that it's good against invisible creatures, as dodge doesn't apply to effects you cannot see. Or effects you cannot dodge. However, it only blocks against weapon attacks and thus won't save you from fall damage.

So I'd say it has a very niche use where you're fighting invisible creatures, or you're running through a blade trap.

>>48792752
>axe in the face

Boy am I glad I was casting Blade Ward!

I was taking a look at the homebrew classes, and Runeseeker caught my eye since I've always wanted to play something like it. Looking through the PDF of it, it seems pretty solid. Has anyone tried in practice though?

Shit.

I need a one-shot investigation/RP-heavy adventure to run tonight.

Anybody got one to run? Looking at level 5-9.

>>48792455
>>48792515
The point of multicultural or multiracial parties is banter, rivalry and hate sex.

First time DM here, planning to run LMoP. Isn't the triple Bugbear encounter in the Red Brand Hideout a little much for three level two PCs?

>>48792908
but anon, my party is all male!

>>48792993
Did I stutter?

>>48793047
...who is the alp of the group?

>>48792347
Read my previous post, I do not think variant human is OP compared to the other races, except maybe a few outlying builds. What I'm saying is that (1) variant human is way out of line with other races in style, a feat is a very different benefit than the rest and doesn't fit in the design space (doesn't have to be a bad thing, but this on top of its laziness makes me dislike the design of it) and (2) that variant humans make for one of the best 2-3 races in almost any build, which can't be said about any other race. I challenge you to find even a single online build that doesn't have variant human as one of the best choices, i.e. sky blue or gold for most build sites. This is why I think they're a bad addition to the game, not because they're OP. If you want an all-human game, I'm running one right now as I said, and variant human works well there when everyone is one.

Hell, just look at the collective backlash at Aarakocra, it's not all because they're OP - a lot is because limit-less flight is way out of line when it comes to racial abilities, and even if it was balanced in combat, it would break the game in other aspects, trivializing many traps and obstacles for example.

People are insisting variant humans are always 'top-tier', but I wouldn't say so.


The feats you get aren't as good as the racial bonuses if you want all of them.

You could go variant human and pick the 'gain a load of languages' or 'gain more proficiencies' feats.
Since you are a variant human, you also gain an additional proficiency and an additional language over common.

Linguist variant human:
5 languages.
1 skill.
+1 int.
+1 to two stats.
Skilled variant human:
2 language.
4 skills.
+1 to two stats.

Half-elf:
3 languages.
2 skills.
Immune to magical sleep.
Magic resistance versus charms.
Darkvision.
+2 charisma
+1 to two stats (not charisma)

This is just one example where half-elf is a much better skillmonkey than variant human.

Then, how about half-orc?

>darkvision
>bonus damage on crits
>same number of languages, no choosing what it is though
>same number of skills, one must be intimidate
>dropping to 1 HP instead of 0 HP
+2 and +1 in stats that the class that is likely to take it will want (A fighter or a barbarian, for example)

What about halfling?
>reroll nat 1s
It is somewhat contested by human with lucky feat, but you can get a halfling with lucky feat if you really hate Fun.

Variant humans are a brilliant thing. It encourages more humans than rainbowparties and allows humans to be pretty much any class without putting restrictions on other races. Humans are about versatility.
Quite often, other races are very good at specific things.

Everything is fine.

>>48793422
Okay, after writing this, whoever said 'humans are either top-tier or second-best-tier', I'd probably say they're right, because they don't go any worse than second-best-tier at any point.

A high level fighter would be overwhelmed with so many feats they'd probably wish they were a half-orc or something, though.

>>48792168
I give up.

I quit.

Every single encounter I throw at my party they wipe the floor with them with ease. A Monk, a Bard, a Cleric, a Fighter, and a Druid.

Really I can't do anything. I have even made up my own baddies for them to fight using player stats and still they just wipe them with ease.

What the hell am I doing wrong

>>48793476
Well, start explaining how the typical fight goes.

How do your enemies target the players?
What abilities do the players use?

What level are the players?
What sort of saves/AC do the monsters have?

What sort of attacks do the monsters have?

Are you pacing battles correctly? i.e., not just one battle a day and then a long rest. Are there encounters that wittle down the player's spell slots and abilities until they come to the big fight?

>>48793476
>What the hell am I doing wrong
Apparently not giving them a challenge. just raise the difficulty of encounter up until you feel that ehy get a challenge.

>>48793515
The last big fight was against a Mind Flayer so naturally I had a progression of enemies to fight before reaching his lair.

But every fight just seemed like they breezed through it.

They're a lvl 11 party.

I think im just too afraid of a TPK or something I dont know. They want a challenge but i dont know how to give it to them I've followed the DMG on how to build encounters, used kobold fight club, donjon - everything. But it just doesnt seem like anything is working.

the monk only needs a short rest to get back all his powers and he is nearly invincible

>>48793476
Balancing badly, I'd guess.
http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?367697-Encounter-difficulty-how-to-fix-it
Use this to determine whether your encounter is deadly or not.

Also, feel free to tweak the MM entries. Creatures die too fast? Give 'em more hit points.

>>48793582
>Also, feel free to tweak the MM entries. Creatures die too fast? Give 'em more hit points.

Thats what i was thinking and it sucks because one of the players knows the MM inside and out already so when i do things like that he always questions on whether im cheating them out or something.

ive been playing with these guys for awhile now and we're all friends outside the game too so i think im just being a pussy about it lol

thank you for the link though gonna check it out.

>>48793567
Have you tried something like a boss rush or an encounter in an arena or Colosseum where there are plenty of fights one after another? Of course, raising the difficulty after each one. This should leave the party out of options by the end and make the big bad guys quite a challenge

>>48793449
Yeah, i think if you play at higher levels variant humans lose a lot of value for fighters in particular. That's part of the reason I don't like them, their power doesn't come from the features themselves but their timing, stealing things from higher levels to get a bit earlier instead of things that aren't as good. I played Lamentations of the Flame Princess lately and the non-humans there (as classes) are OP, specifically because they don't scale as well. I.e. an elf will be better than humans by getting both wizard and fighter features, but you need more XP to level up and don't scale as well. It might be balanced, but I hate the design of it and it just simply isn't fun.

I agree humans, in certain settings, should be more versatile and variable than other races, but it's much better to reflect that by having 4+ subraces as the different cultures or types of humans, instead of literally breaking the race feature structure just to force them to be good at anything. It's like saying "hey you can refluff any other race as human because they're so versatile", it would work in making more characters be human but it's a really lazy and bad way to do it IMO.

>>48793606
Refluff the monsters, even if you don't change the stats. I'm not the most experienced GM in my group and it's much more fun that way, so he doesn't know immediately what the monster is like.

>>48793567
Not every encounter has to be fought.

Not every encounter has to be inescapable.

I often make encounters that aren't SUPPOSED to be fought, or won, but they are supposed to be somewhat doable. I dislike making unkillable characters, it's a type of railroading. 'The big bad comes to town. You can't kill him, so you're forced to stay with the story and cry as he kills your mother.' kind of thing.

The players should know when they're getting into something rough. The players should have a plan for if things do get rough.

You don't have to keep it to such a simple progression. 'You encounter X. You encounter Y. You encounter the boss!'
There could be a lot of encounters you could get through without fighting, but you could still bypass otherwise at the expense of getting wornd own a bit. There could be encounters that hide extra treasure.
When it comes to bosses, you normally want them to either have some way to act outside their own turn or have them have extra goons.

>>48792168
Anybody else notice that the August UA isn't in the MEGA yet?

>>48793647
Hell, you can even just take the half-elf and give them +2 CON instead of CHA, and you got a versatile race right there. Half-elves are really good for any charisma class because of the nature of their features, and giving them CON instead, which is useful for anyone, means they will be good at almost any class. They may not be the top tier pick every time, but why would the other races even exist in the setting if humans are as good as them at every single thing? They should have a weakness, and a jack of all trades should be a master of none.

Which seems more useful for a Monk, Tavern Brawler for grapple checks or Magic Initiate for Druid stuff?

Or should I say fuck it and just get +2 to a stat?

>>48792952
If they fight them? Sure. But there's other methods of solving that problem, like pretending to be Redbrands. Or running away very fast.

>>48793814
Magic Initiate probably. Tavern Brawler only really gets you grapple checks, and I'm pretty sure monk class abilities and ki powers are better than that.

>>48793814
Magic Initiate (Druid), deploy nunchaku, become SAD.

>>48793814
+2 to a stat, unless you want to get those Druid spells for out of combat use. Flurry, your primary damage source, runs off the Attack action, meaning that casting most level 1 spells will actually reduce your damage output.

Tavern Brawler is shit for Monks because they run off Dex, not Str, therefore they're shit at grappling unless you got some ridiculous ability score rolls when you made your character.

>>48793869
Flurry still runs off Dex.

>>48793887
The stats I ended up with were 14str, 14dex, 14con, 10int, 14wis, 10cha as a Goliath, and I assume the Large Build will make grappling easier against small targets since that seems like something my DM would allow.

>>48792715
No gm would allow you to spam a cantrip that lasts 6 seconds over and over and over. Honestly cant even imagine what sort of player would want to do that

>>48792778
It was a magic axe, too bad

>>48794000
Goliaths aren't mechanically Large for anything other than carrying, but all the better for you if your DM rules that way, I suppose.

Still, realistically, unless you're starting at high level and therefore have ASIs to spare, you're going to want to put those points into Dex anyway, since it increases your to-hit, damage, AC and initiative. You'll probably find it hard to hit anything with just a +2.

However, if you're at high level, have found other ways to shore up your AC, and don't really care about your Wis-riders, a Dex/Str-based grapple build would not be the worst thing you could do. I wouldn't really advise you to do it unless you really want to, and have some idea of what you're doing, though.

>>48793606
>one of the players knows the MM inside and out already so when i do things like that he always questions on whether im cheating them out or something.

Ew. Get new players

That is probably one of the most obnoxious and blatantly stupid player things ive ever heard. Explain to your player that the MM is not the bible, its to be used for reference. If you want to buff something up, strip it down, or totally change it entirely, thats your choice as the dm

>>48794099
>No gm would allow you to spam a cantrip that lasts 6 seconds over and over and over.
I'd let them do it. But if it had a verbal component, like Blade Ward, I'd make them roll con saves to not lose their voice.

>>48794201
Indeed. I'm one of those players who does know the MM rather well and play as a scholar-type who potentially knows a lot about them. I let the dice fall where they may and it has varied from my DM just leading me read entries straight from the MM all the way to mammoths being explained as "Wooly, Tusked, Enlarged Giant Space Hamsters" with no idea how they worked. Makes it quite fun to explain what happens when his knowledge checks fail and he tries to explain what he is seeing :D

Am I reading this right?

>Shadow Step
>At 6th level. you gain the ability to step from one shadow into another. When you are in dim light or darkness. as a bonus action you can teleport up to 60 feel to an unoccupied space you can see that is also in dim light or darkness. You then have advantage on the first melee attack you make before the end of the turn.

This has no cooldown or cost to use? That seems like it could be fun to play literally "teleports behind u unsheeths katana"-ing people

>>48794447
Basically. The cost is your bonus action, which you could instead be using to make another one or two melee attacks from your other class features - bearing in mind that one attack with advantage is almost always statistically inferior to two identical attacks made separately.

Of course, you get additional movement and so forth, so it's definitely not a straight downgrade, especially if you enjoy the flavor.

>>48794495
Yeah I'm mostly just surprised to see that much mobility available, a monk with that, the mobility feat, no armor on and using Dash twice could cover a stupid amount of ground in one turn.

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>>48793117

>>48794524
You can already dash as a bonus action, so it's basically the same upgrade as misty step over expeditious retreat, but also situational.

Which is the best website to download musics for RPG?

>>48794689
Download "DMDJ" for apple or android on your phone.

It costs like a dollar or two, totally worth it.
hundreds of weather tracks in addition to ambience. Can mix and max different sound tracks with weather and change everything's intensity depending on how prominent you want each track to be. And you do it all on the homescreen of the program, so its no a bunch of fiddling to get it right.

I was very pleasantly suprised. You can add your own music too, though it comes with much.

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New player to 5e here. Trying to build out a ranged fighter. Specifically, my GM is letting me have a Heavy Bowgun (yes, from Monster Hunter). The way we've ruled it is 2d6 piercing (equivalent of a greatsword), but I have to spend an action (with Concentration check if I get attacked) reloading after 4 shots and the range is cut to 20/40. This will come up in a bit.

Two-part question here.
Firstly, I'm worried that the shortish range will make me pretty vulnerable. After I get my Battlemaster Maneuvers, I'm thinking of grabbing up two levels in Rogue to help with that. The way I'm picturing it is that it'll give me a bonus 1d6 damage most of the time and some extra movement on most turns, but maybe I'm mistaken.
>Is two levels in Rogue too much to spend on this? Is there a more cost-efficient way?
Secondly, since I'm new to the system, any tips for a ranged battlemaster fighter? In particular, I can take three feats and still reach 20 Dex (I'd have to discuss with the GM about 3rd party stuff, which I haven't looked through).
>Tips for a ranged fighter?

Pic questionably related

>>48794788
That seems nice, but I'm a windows phone user haha, I'm using clownfish to put songs in the background, but I don't have many songs that fit rpg.

>>48794835
Shit :/ can't help you there. There are lots of websites with raw sound files, mostly for sound engineers, but remembering my experiences from uni working with them for media projects, they all require a LOT of clipping and fiddling to make them actually useable.

As for premade sound tracks, i don;t know.
There's this:
http://tabletopaudio.com/
and this:
http://rpg.ambient-mixer.com/

>>48792214
I agree with this anon. I think humans as mechanically best was on purpose. Core races are best, including half elves, then the rare races are second, and every supplementary race so far has been weaker than that. I think they're trying to make games mostly human plus some elves dwarves and half elves, and if you want to play another race you can.

>>48794800
Small correction, I just noticed I get a bonus feat as human, so I actually get four feats.

>>48792446
Damn and I pirated all my books and bought my books for 3.5 back in the day.

>>48794800
>more damage than heavy crossbow
>doesn't have loading quality, unlike crossbow, meaning you can fire it several times
>limited range
Concentration on reloading isn't a big deal since your con save should be pretty damn good.

It sounds like an upgrade of the longbow (longbow averages 4.5+dexmod damage, 2d6 blowgun averages 7+dexmod damage) until you get to level 11, where it becomes a bit of a hassle given you can only fire once every other turn if you use all your attacks.

The short range isn't really an issue. Fighters are tough. You should be pretty tough, and your main stat will be dex, so you can easily reach 17 AC with light armour alone.

Picking up a bit of rogueishness isn't too bad an idea, because you don't have a lot of bonus action functions. If you had a lot of bonus actions being wasted (some battlemaster featres do do this) then it might be a problem.

You might even want to consider going five levels in rogue for the added tankiness, since you can't fire your weapon as a reaction normally.

I think fighter 15 | rogue 5 would be a very good combination. You'd have 3 attacks per action, each with a chance to use that 3d6 sneak attack. You could halve damage taken with your reaction. You'd get to run around a lot with your bonus. Also expertise.

But seriously, pick up a longbow or something once you hit level 11 in fighter.
Also, try to aim for level 5 in fighter before multiclassing, I suppose. Level 5 features are good.

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>>48794835
This is the track that is my campaigns "theme song". I play it mostly when they PCs are traveling, or leveling up.

Great feels, very grimedarp, but still real music, not MIDI. I have no idea who put the slideshow to it on youtube however, shits dumb.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjnC-rMXvJU

>>48793722
I could've sworn I uploaded it, my bad. It's in there now.

>>48795072
Great, that was a lot of useful info. Thanks!

>>48794800
(not him) Keep in mind a heavy crossbow is 18 pounds, requires reloading and is shorter range compared to longbow, so you could just use that honestly. Also, goading attack is great at range if you have some frontliners, essentially giving an enemy disadvantage on all their attacks the next turn if they have no ranged attacks.

>>48793582
How does this work in practice? Is the base system fundamentally flawed in taking numbers into so much consideration? This makes more sense and is much simpler, but it seems odd that they would create such complex formulas and shit to account for a non-issue.

>>48792233
>the party encounters some vaguely shady, sly, or hobo-like figure who speaks absolute nonsense every tenth word
>they immediately understand that he's up to something bad
Cant is retarded. It's a giant "I AM UP TO NO GOOD" flag, just like wearing a fucking hood. When you're the only one in the market dressed like a goddamn ninja, you're not being sneaky, you're even more obvious.

How do I run Curse of Strahd? My GM is finishing up his campaign and asked if someone would mind taking over and running CoS, he got it for his birthday and would love to play instead of run, I offered to take up the mantle, he made Princes look simple enough. Well cracking open the book, i have no idea. It seems like a sandbox style game with no real driving force other the the deck of cards at the beginning. How do I go about running this game?

>>48795626
>The third headline in this week's paper discusses a group of armed mercenaries attacking local workers near the docks, as they were "suspicious of their accent and diction"

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>>48795699
>No real driving force
You have been entrapped in the realm of a devious wizard/fighter vampire, ages old, who intends to find one of you as a suitable heir or have you die trying, enjoying playing with his food every step of the way. Their only hope for survival is to claw their way out of this timeless hellhole, while being pursued by its Dark Lord as well as various evil forces that would be glad to see them gone, and kill the vampire in his castle. If your characters have any sense of self preservation or moral code, they have a driving force.

I'm running a campaign where dragons are long extinct but draconic is still spoken like Latin in Europe during the middle ages. Assuming none of my players take draconic as a language how do I describe it? Is it a gutteral language or more sing songy, how would I go about explaining to the players what they're hearing?

>>48796012
Languages are fucking hard, I don't even do accents. The easiest is to just equate it to a real world language, like saying it sounds somewhat Dutch, Elven being like French is quite common I think.

>>48796012
Ultimately up to you, but I typically think of it as being kinda harsh and grating. Also, no lip-using sounds (p, b etc), cause dragons don't have human lips.

>>48792554
Anything with Blind Sight True Sight Tremor Sense. A daylight spell can dispel it, or dispel magic. Also, you know you don't need to see what you are fireballing.

>>48792605
Thankfully there is a class for that m8, find a PHB copy or support wizards and buy the book. They got tons and tons of classes.

>Think I'll throw a Hill Giant at my players for a real challenge
>Testing out the default profile
>Is capable of knocking 75% of the party to 0 HP in one hit
Hmm..

Not sure if I should just tone down how many dice are rolled when he swings or take away some of his modifiers.

Or just replace him with something weaker.

>>48796331
Yes, something like that.

Also devil's sight, which is only really owned by devils.

Isn't there another light spell like daylight?

If a DM makes a giant worm ignore it, that's obviously fine. If a DM makes a magic user use dispel magic, that's obviously fine.
If the DM goes 'Well, everybody has a gem of truesight' with no obvious indicators of how or why beforehand, I'm going to have to call them out on their shit.

>>48796382
Maybe the "real challenge" is they have to figure out how to beat such a creature that can normally destroy them so badly. They have to think outside the box, use their environment, and otherwise not fight fair.

Basically, they have to do Combat as War!

>>48792758
The eldritch knight would have reasons due to their class features, but otherwise I'd agree with you on the dodge thing

>>48796382
Eh. Depending on how they do it, they could manage it easily.

Get a guy to fly and rain death on him from above until he dies.

Abuse his action economy by making sure he can only take out one player a turn, and then reviving them again.

Abuse the heck out of spells.

It really depends how clever your party are, or if your party is the sort who...
>tanky guy
>doing tankey things rather than attacking, enemy can barely even hit tanky guy
>spellcaster realizes they can't do maximum DPS this turn unless they charge in and start poking really dangerous enemy with stick
>enemy ignores tanky guy and takes spellcaster straight down

Generally a good encounter should allow more time before a player goes down, but shouldn't make it so you have a single enem with a massive pool of HP.

Consider maybe having two enemies instead of one, I think..?

>>48796448
Good point.

The problem I have with roll20 as a free user is it takes a lot of work to make a map that could reflect that they can maybe, oh I don't know, crush him with a giant boulder that is overhead.

>>48796494
They're the latter. They're a group of level 3 morons who NEVER stick to their battle plan.

The Dwarf Fighter has an AC of 2 and the other jackasses STILL don't use him as a shield. It's gotten to the point that I've decided to start making encounters weaker but now they complain that encounters are too easy.

Maybe instead of the Hill Giant they can fight 2 werewolves or maybe a manticore.

>>48796454
Oh, right, good point. I forgot about that.

You can make a single attack after a cantrip.
>cast blade ward
>make attack
>enemy now has disadvantage on next spell save they make if you hit

It still doesn't seem like a great combo.
Dodge helps avoid dex saves, and when you have very high AC it's even more effective (Say, enemy can only hit on a 20 - they now only have a 1/400 chance of hitting you.)

Also blade ward is limited to physical damage and weapon attacks only.

Still niche use, but it'd definitely be worth using over dodge if you know the only thing coming towards you are physical weapon attacks.

>>48796530
Hit them with a hard encounter that will not kill the party. Some sort of merciful enemy, perhaps.

The encounter must be possible, but it must also be hard to win with blind tactic.

Give the players time to prepare themselves, and make sure they know it's not going to be an easy fight.

Heck, even make subtle hints and recommendations like 'YOU'RE A WIZARD STOP TRYING TO MELEE DEATH ITSELF'

My group of new players are considering the idea of me running a different story instead of the starter set one since its been months since we last met.

I'll get around to asking them each what they'd like to see / whats important to them in a campaign, but until then does anyone have suggestions for awesome low level adventures?

Either personal favorites or classic ones I can try to convert from older editions?

>>48796607
From my test runs, they can handle a manticore easily. I'm thinking a Hill Giant is just too much for them to fight straight up because of their small health pools.

I think I'll need to save the Hill Giant for much later.

>>48792546
Why do the first option when the second one is objectively better, the random magic items in 5e are really powerful. The third option is also kind weird, money doesn't mean a whole lot in 5e so unless you have it have some kind of plot relevance I don't foresee that option ever used. The last option is pretty cool tho I can see a lot of very interesting roleplay encounters stem from that.

>>48796667
If they have a tanky person, they should make sure the tanky person is the one getting hit, and make sure the tanky person has some sort of buffs to take more hits.
A guy in chainmail with a shield with shield of faith on him who's using dodge is really easy to get, and very, very effective at taking hits.

Sure, the hill giant might decide 'this human is being too dodgey! I'll go attack one of the spellcasters'
But if the hill giant decides that, the spellcasters have to then decide on a retreat.

This is simple tactics, and hitting them with a fight that'll punish them for bad tactics might be a bit harsh, but maybe, just maybe, it'll teach them to play their role and not try to maximize their DPS for the sake of putting their life at risk.

Hit them with the hill giant. If they don't abuse their powers to make it work, they'll be punished accordingly with a whack around.
If they don't bother the hill giant enough, maybe it'll just move along without even bothering to check if the pesky humans are dead, and maybe 50% of them will survive.

>>48796866
Good idea.

I should make the map a lot larger though, to give them time to actually put some dents in him. I hate roll20 sometimes, man.

>>48796012
Of any logic could be applied, Draconic is a language humans can write just find but actually speaking of it is something they aren't really capable of doing very well due to vocal chord structure.
Conversely, dragons can speak human languages because their vocal chords are akin to that of birds and pretty good at vaguely mimicking sounds made by other animals, though as they are much larger and have much more powerful lungs the sound is always far deeper and louder then normal.

>>48796382
My party of 5 3rd level PCs ran into a cyclops in a random encounter, which is basically a slightly stronger hill giant with less range on the stone, +1 strength and AC, CR 6 instead of 5. They were 5 level 3s, but they are shit at the game, as in the rogue forgot about sneak attack, the two fighters didn't action surge (short rest powers are per encounter even, so no excuse not to), the berserker just ran up to tank it solo (got downed, then healed, raged, downed again), etc. So they basically didn't use class features and still, with a couple of fireballs the fighter got to cast by drinking the soul of a wizard, they won with 4/5 undamaged and one missing an eye and at 3 exhaustion.

Essentially, if your players are competent they should be fine. If the fighters or cleric had shared tanking a bit and the barb hadn't just stood there readying an attack it would have been easy.

File: Pangolls.pdf (1B, 486x500px)

1B, 486x500px

I went through WotC's listed rules for translating the Pangolls, from the linked pdf. If anyone cares, lemme know what you think.

>+2 Con
>Medium
>Lumbering Gait: Base speed cut to 20 ft, but ignore encumbrance
>+1 AC
>Prehensile Tail: Retrieve small objects as a swift action
>Defense Curl: As an Action, curl into a ball. Gain Damage Resistance against physical damages while curled. While curled, you may not move, take actions, make Str or Dex, or reflex saves, and you lack line of sight. Ending the effect is an Action.
>Languages: Common, Pangollian

>>48796982
They're not the smartest group so I'll have to put some extra thought into describing the scene so they actually use their environment.

>>48797115
>swift action
>+1 AC
>worse blade ward
Gonna be a no from me anon.

>>48797155
and thats a no from me as well

>>48797150
I thought the area might be a bit too good for the rogue because it was a ruin with walls they could hide between, and with disadvantage on Perception it had 3 passive perception, meaning they could all just hide and even with shit rolls he would have to roll really well to find them at all. This type of brute force enemy is the easiest to deal with in these cases though, I can't even imagine how dead they would be if it was the other possible encounter in the area, a wizard with Confusion and other fun spells.

>>48797210
Hm. Well they'll be running into the Giant in a forested area, maybe they'll be smart enough (or I'll have to word-of-God it) to use the trees to confuse him.

>>48797115
A no here too, but I love the idea of that race, so many tweak it a bit?

>Without Armor, AC is 12+Dex
>Change Prehensile Tail to free action
Not entirely sure about defense curl. Maybe have it cause enemies to have disadvantage on attacks, in addition to the damage resistance? I'm not sure how balanced that would be in practice though

>>48797115
From my perspective:
Prehensile tail needs some refinement. Maybe the ability to hold objects, or do regular hand stuff with disadvantage.
Seems like it should be small instead of medium, but whatevs.
Armor curl is interesting, but needs work. Maybe roll in the AC bonus, and make it so defensive action gives +2 AC, resistances, and advantage on Con saves. Also, consider letting it be undone as a bonus action instead, otherwise it'll never see any use.

I don't know about balance, but that seems more appropriate.

>>48792235

One of the first times I tried playing DND we were playing with a full plated Paladin who had no points invested into jump (3.5). We were exploring some dungeon and we came across a crevice we had to jump across. The Paladin of course rolls his dice before I can suggest we look ahead for something to help him across and dies like instantly.

We never played again.

>>48792168
Afternoon /5eg/ents. I'm the anon making a Sci-Fi game run on 5e's rules, come to you guys for another bit of advice.

Looking through the various Packs available, I noticed that several of them contain items that, logically in the distant future, may not exist in their current form. For example, candles. At first I was gonna just call them flashlights...and then I thought: Flashlights are closer to Bull's-Eye lanterns, aren't they? And shit, my phone has a flashlight on it.

Which then made me realize. Shouldn't PCs have phones? Smartphones?

I'm so confuse guys. What do I do?

>>48798236
Find a system designed for the kind of game you want to run.

>>48798236
Every pack should probably have some sort of portable communication device with a light and various stuff that smart phones can do. If it's far-future it could be a watch, a glove, a bracer, or even just something like a tricorder/smart phone.

>>48798236
Most dungeon delving equipment will be trivialized by technology, yes. Think about what the players will be useful and what kind of high-tech equipment they would have use for, not sure what the setting is here.

>>48798324
>stop having fun
No.

>>48798332
That's a pretty good idea. Like, a multi-tool in every pack. As long as I don't focus on it I don't think they'd make the connection.

>>48798401
Setting is an old one I'm revamping for 5e. Basically Mass Effect meetsFarscape meets Star Wars. And then a dash of Kill-Six-Billion-Demons for good measure.

>>48798236
You'll want to remake the packs from the ground up. Rather than base them on the PHB listings, you're probably better off taking a look at what travel and sports websites recommend you take along with you. If you're taking a trip to Space Paris, your pack probably consists of a bag with a couple changes of clothes, a spare pair of shoes, and your passport. If you're going hiking in Space Yellowstone Park, you'll need a lot more stuff. Having a smartphone is probably about as passe as having a flip-phone would be these days, so you'll want to exercise caution when you insert whatever you think is the latest-and-greatest in personal tech.

>>48792617

Agreed with >>48792653 for the most part. SCAG and EE are so tame, i have no clue why anyone would ban them.

EKs lose some power without the SCAG cantrips. Focus on defensive spells and just beat the shit out of things like a normal fighter.

>>48798404
>>48798332
>>48798236

Just rewrite the packs to have all the gear someone of that profession would use in the current age rather than focusing,on an exact translation of each item. An explorers pack has nav tools and maybe a star chart, a chief's kit has a couple of hacking tools and a universal jack, a climbers kit has a grapel gun and some mag boots, etc.

>>48792736

Nothing like your picture, unfortunately.

>>48798521
Building off this guy's point of smart phones being an outdated concept in the future you may want to go speculative future into something like an Augmented Reality implant a la "The Feed" for dedicated comms people and/or wearable head/wristgear for AR interfaces for the general populace.

I know this is a slippery slope here but if you still intend to be magic heavy you could steal a lot of tech/magic ideas from Shadowrun to supplement the Modern Magic Unearthed Arcana.

>>48798477
>Kill-Six-Billion-Demons
Nice, I assume you've looked through the powered by the apocalypse game he's making for it?

>>48798236
Keep in mind candles serve several purposes in D&D: small concealable source of light, marking an area with wax, and keeping time.

The game doesn't really explain this but players have creatively used mundane items forever and their utility is why they are important.

>>48798524
I've seen a lot of people in these threads make comments that reveal they don't even know that EE exists. And I can see someone banning SCAG because of all the gish munchkins out there who jerk off at night to it.

Or maybe the DM saw both books add a race option with a flying speed.

>>48798710
I've glanced at it whenever an update comes out.

>>48798724
Oh shit that's good insight. Huh. Now I'm really stumped.

>>48798763

Just ban the bird people then. Banning the whole splat book is dumb.

Even the bird people probably aren't as OP as people say they are. Definitely one of the best races, but not campaign ruining.

>>48792554
Light clerics can also use their channel divinity to dispel magical darkness

>>48798867
And Variant Tieflings, who don't even have armor limiters like the Aarakocra do.

But a good DM won't be frazzled by one of his players having at-will flight, it's just that your average DM running a pre-built campaign will be.

>>48798763
Honestly in more situations Flight isn't such an amazing ability. Sure, a spellcaster flying around is dangerous, but they still gotta make Concentration checks because on fuckstupid DMs don't throw some sort of ranged or other flying threat at most parties when they can manage it.

Also, dungeons. They aren't known for their excessive headroom.

>>48792455
Doing an all Wood Elf campaign right now. Going very well.

>>48799031
True that, the two greatest bonuses that my aarakocra rogue enjoyed were a greater access to hiding spots and interacting with the environment, and then the ability to avoid triggering pressure traps because I'm flying above them. Of course, doesn't work so well for the people who were counting on me finding that trap...

Also, the ability to throw myself into a room. Used that to convince my DM to give enemies disadvantage on their attempts to hit me due to my speed, to get through traps blocking a doorway, and to otherwise pull stunts. Really, the bigger boon was the base 50' move speed thanks to flying...

>>48798912
Oh, thanks for pointing that out.

>>48798763
To be honest, spellblading is kind of retarded if you don't have access to booming blade or green flame blade.

Those two cantrips open up a lot of options.

>>48794800
The reloading thing makes your character a bitch. A fighter at end game has 4 attacks EVERY turn. So you're attacking one turn, then reloading the other, thus getting half the attack output, plus you can't even use the fighters Action Surge to nova-attack due to your clunky weapon. Just use a heavy crossbow if you want the big shooter gimmick. Ranged BM are pretty cool though but heavy crossbows are not great even with the feat they are sub-par. The intimidating shot one because will-save can stop some creatures physically being unable to approach you. Accurate strike is a literal must have. The best heavy X-bow character is the Beast-master ranger, because they can make a single attack with crossbow, and let their beast use the attacks they would have otherwise lost.

The best ranged fighter build I've used, also the most fun is a Human Hand crossbow wielder with net-tricks. Human Fighter, Level 1. Crossbow master. You get the option of two attacks straight of the bat, while keeping a hand free and making use of the Archery fighting style. You can also throw a net as your attack action, which grants you the hand-crossbow shot bonus which if the net hit, is at advantage. Nets are pretty awesome, sure it's DC10 to escape but it wastes an action and even some high challenge monsters can still fail 25% of the time. If they don't try to escape the net, Disadvantage to fight back, Advantage to get hit, Zero movement. Also rewards action-surge novas, the build into Sharpshooter attacks, and the Battle master style of combat using Accurate strike to make sure that net lands or using damage-boosting maneuvers into your increased critical hits. At the mid levels, having haste is a godsend since you use the "Bonus" Haste attack to throw the net, then volley into them with your attack action all at advantage, plus bonus action and potentially action surge, all boosted with -5 to hit, +10 damage. Spits out mad single-target DPS and Control at the same time.

>>48792168
Does horde breaker work with bow?

>>48799513
>beastmaster ranger uses pet to attack for the lost crossbow attacks
Huh, I never thought of it that way
It always seemed crossbow became useless once you got multi-attack

Not anon you're replying to, but that's a good point about nets.

Can you make a good ranged healer?
I don't necessarily mean a healer that heals allies at range, but an effective ranged combatant that can also do their job as main healer.

>>48799659
be light cleric
get another classes cantrip if you dont like sacred fire

>>48799635
Yep.

>>48799513
>Level 11 Fighter with haste, 20dex and lets assume +2 Hand Crossbow.
Haste action to throw net at roughly 1d20+11 to hit with the net, with an extra 1d10 to hit insurance which is then followed by 4 Attacks at +8 to hit, with advantage, each scoring 1d6+17 damage, the potential for another 3 attacks thanks to Action Surge and of course, Aimed shot to secure those hits.. Pretty brutal.

Our low level party hasn't got a healer, and I was hoping to play a Rogue (Thief).

Would taking Magic Initiate Druid for 10 goodberries be a decent choice for at least keeping incapacitated people from being unconscious? I was probably going to magic initiate anyways for cantrips, and that seems like the best option for spreading out healing across a day since I only get one cast.

>>48792367

Kick them out of your group faggot. Or just stop contacting them. Also, it's called making some real friends. You should've tried a bit harder to hold onto your friends from high school faggot. I did and as a result I have loyal people I can trust to play campaigns with. We play every weekend despite being in our mid20s and knowing each other for like 10 years. Yeah we're different from when we met each other but we still like each other. It's your own fault for choosing to go to college in another state and get some retarded job you probably hate, and now you are alone and can't even find a decent RPG group. I genuinely feel sorry for you (not pity you, I just feel bad for you) but honestly, it's your own fault.

>>48792455
>I would kill to DM an all dwarf, all ork, or even an all elf campaign.

So would I. But the problem is that since 3.5 was released most players are special snowflakes who want to play drow, tieflings, or warforged, and cannot stand to play something as BORING as a standard race. Mostly because, they cannot create an interesting character to save their fucking life.

>>48792446
>Mearls has tweeted that the 5e PHB has sold more then the 3.0/3.5/4 PHB's individually

No shit, 3.5 and 4e came out before Big Bang Theory made D&D mainstream.

>>48799989
Just take the healer feat and grab a healer's kit. Fast Hands lets you use it as a bonus action. Probably get more mileage out of it than your one spell a day.

>>48799989
It's not the worst idea. To be honest you don't really need it, though.

>>48792605

> Just played my first ever game at 22yo,

God I hate people who started roleplaying over the age of 18. I started RPGs at 10 years old and was DMing 3 years later, I am now a master of my craft and I run campaigns that get highly complimented with literallly nothing but mental prep on the drive there and occasionally some mapped dungeons. I get told all the time I'm the best GM they've ever had, by multiple groups. People who start at age 18 or over cannot even compare to someone like me who has now been DMing for over 15 years.

>>48792673
>Can an EK even get Wish?

Look up the rules, idiot. it has to belong to certain schools. I barely even play 5e (4e is better) and even I know that.

>>48799647
The best bits about net is it's not just you that gets the benefit, all your allies can enjoy the easy-target too. And the foe who had the audacity to be hit by your rather accurate attack that offers no save of any kind is stuck with "Do I continue to be an incredible easy target who can't move nor fight back reasonably, or do I waste my turn attempting to escape the net, make no attack and hope they don't just throw a second one on me immediately after I get out of this one."

Beastmaster isn't a very strong class, but it can still be fun. They are rather good with heavy crossbows because the spell "Swift Quiver" also circumvents the reload property of the crossbow, giving your higher level rangers 3 shots for good damage and 2 beast attacks. They also aren't too shabby with nets either being able to throw nets as well as giving their "Lost attacks" to their pet, who now attacks with advantage thanks to the restraint. If nothing else, beasts can at least stand between you and your foes and offer attacks of opportunity freely. In our Coastal-themed campaign we had a Sailor-Ranger using a Harpoon gun (Heavy Crossbow) with a Giant Crab pet. Anyone who wanted to get near him had to get past an AC 18 Crab with auto-grapple cock-blocking pincers.

>>48800039
That's not a bad idea, I didn't even think to do that. Can healer kits be reused or are they one-and-done?

In either case the Goodberry is there for backstory purposes just as much as practical use (They've learned it specifically so they don't have to worry about starving to death)

>>48800069
You sound fun at parties
Here's your (You)

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>>48800139
>Can healer kits be reused or are they one-and-done?
10 uses

>>48800069
>idiot.
this is so ironic
i know this is all bait but i found this part funny

>>48800139
Goodberry aint worth it to be honest even with freebie cantrips. Healer feat seems fun and you get about 10 uses out of the kit but even with low level PC money you could just afford a few of the cheap healing potions that you can administer as a bonus action thanks to fast-hands/cunning action.

>>48800069
EK can't get wish because they only get like up to level 4 spells. They can however cast it off a scroll if they pass Arcana. Amusingly, so can ANY High-elf, no matter what class. Certian school doesn't entirely apply, EK are limited to Evocaiton and Abjuration only two thirds of their spells, every 3rd spell they learn can be any school.

>>48800225
Healing potions are magic items and are thus not usable with Fast Hands.

Healing kits are not magic items and thus are.

>>48799989
Can you learn more spells later on with Magic initiate?

>>48800492

no

>>48800225
Good berry from Initiate is really only good for life clerics (40 hp per day) or bypassing food requirements. Otherwise the healer feat is the best bet, which (unlike health potions) can be used with fast hands for a decent field-medic.

>>48800506
Please?

>>48800644

It gives you a single level 1 spell and 2 cantrips. It doesn't give you anything else.

The only feat that gives you lots of spells is Ritual Caster.

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>>48792264

>ALRIGHT BOYS, TIME FOR A NEW CAMPAIGN. SEND ME YOUR DICE ROLLS AND RACES, YOU'LL FIND EVERYONE ELSE'S CLASS AND STUFF ON GAME DAY! SEE YOU IN A WEEK

>One week later

>Party of 6 is 5 fucking human fighters and a cleric who uses homebrew blood magic, that nearly killed him within 2 encounters.

TOP FUCKING KEK

Hilarious in that everyone assumes Second Wind is just hulking out with a strong flex of our hard bodies, so after a battle we just bulk out to heal wounds. It's dumb as fuck but god this is fun

>>48800760
sounds awesome
my dream would be to be in a mostly fighter party i think

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>>48792209
Going here on my group's next campaign.

>>48800676
If you were a Ranger, and took Magic Initiate (wizard). Would that spell slot add to your Ranger spell slots or be accounted for separately?

>>48801071
Magic Initiate doesn't give you a spell slot, so no.

>>48801071
Read the feat, it's really simple. You learn how to cast a spell once a day, as well as two cantrips which are at will. No spell slots, spells known, prepared spells, nothing like that.

>>48801071

You can use it with your spell slots only if you have access to it through your class. If a wizard takes magic initiate (wizard) for mage armor they'll have one free cast a day, but they can also cast it via their spell slots because it's on their spell list.

>>48797115
>swift action

It's time to stop

Which is better for Moon Druid? ASI or Feat?
I heard Moon Druid need Warcaster and Resilient (CON) but should that be a priority over 20 WIS?

>>48801570

ASIs aren't great for moon druid. Wisdom might be the exception because when you're not an amnimal you should be casting.

If you find yourself in melee a lot, Warcaster/Resilient (CON) would be fine for holding onto your Barkskin (Or call lightning perhaps, whatever).

>>48794800
> Heavy Bowgun
> Reloading
Just use Adept Style and roll into Siege Mo...

oh wait... this isn't /mhg/?

>>48801570
If you spend most of your combat in animal form, Sentinel makes you a lockdown powerhouse.

>>48801632
>>48801624
Also a few more question...

Do Giant Octopus's Grapple bring enemy closer to me? Can I keep them at 15 feet away from me and keep hitting them with my tentacle?

Sentinel look like a cool option too. Maybe I'll get warcaster first then sentinel as the second feat.

>>48801795

Sure why the hell not. Whatever the range on the ability is in the PHB.

>>48801795
They move with you, so keep them at range!

>>48801861
It's 15 feet, auto restrict (DC 16 to escape).

>>48801795
You could bring them close or keep them away. Keep in mind they could just attack the tentacle

>>48802103
They can? Oh well... at least our rogue will be happy with free advantage...

>>48793567
I had this problem for awhile too. A lot of it does come down to being able to shut off the switch that lets you hold back on committing to being willing to kill your party. I've been running curse of Strahd and to be perfectly honest It took me forever to hitting that point. The party ended up heading towards the Amber temple at level 7 so the sheer fact that many of the monsters are significantly tougher than they are has made me feel more comfortable with using abilities that would put the party down. The flameskulls dropping fireballs on them immediately at the start of combat really shocked them and nearly downed 2 of the party. Those two ran away and the rest of the party fought them off using tactics rather than just bumrushing which was rewarding to see for all of us.

>>48794800 here

After your guys' suggestions here we've decided to just use a Heavy Crossbow, fluffed as an HBG. The rest of the question remains as-is, if there's anything left to say.

Can a creature take damage from moon beam more than once per round?

ie: You shove the creature into moon beam, then it start it turn there.

5e is easily the best edition of D&D to be released after Wizards of the Coast bought it, as well as the easiest to modify without fear of breaking shit.

>join new group
>seems like a solid group
>before our first session, GM invites his cousin
>HELLO MY NAME IS NASHITO NAKIMARYIU I AM A SAMURAI
>incorporates other PCs in his "I am from honoribru famiry but they were bretrayed REVENGE" without asking anyone

Oh fucking shoot me

>>48802401
Yep.

>>48802472

>not being a vengeance paladin and just casting hold person and then smiting him

>>48802565
Well I'm a sorcerer so I could definitely melt his weeb ass with a twinned orb or something but I'm not gonna be the dumbfuck who starts PVP

player himself just seems like a total normie who just wants to play an honoribru warriur so I think it'll be fine

>>48802472
I play an honoribru samrurai from a dishonorable family struggling between his devotion to his family and his devotion to what is right.

Am I a weeb?

>>48802720
I dunno, does your setting support your character?

I just don't know how many Japanese samurai are running around early renaissance fantasy Europe

>>48802759

Far traveler could always be an interesting concept.

>>48802225
This is precisely what I am trying to build up towards. My party is too head strong because they've only ever known successes.

>>48792758
I don't agree. Why can't a character recite the can trip constantly. It can even be part of the character.

>>48802355
yes

>>48792778
Lolol

Doing some light homebrew and looking to not go crazy. Would it seriously screw up game balance for a class to have Wisdom and Dexterity as their Saves?

>>48803111
It's just sort of a meta gamey thing to do

Bward lasts for 6 seconds. so every 6 seconds you're casting it again and again for no real reason.

>>48803199
Does it make sense for the class to have dex and wis saves, or are you giving them dex and wis saves because they're the most common?

>>48803250
>Does it make sense for the class to have dex and wis saves, or are you giving them dex and wis saves because they're the most common?
It's essentially a reskin of the Bard, but designed to evoke a more spiritual "old Jedi" feel. A seeker of spiritual enlightenment, a dabbler in the mystic arts, and a swordsman of some talent.

It fits...I just wonder if two common saves is too much.

>>48803307
If you know that each class gets one major save and one minor save proficiency already, you know that it's a bad idea simply for going so hard against existing designs.

>>48803307
Make it Wisdom and Int, or Dex and Int.

Most of the core classes get their save proficiencies in this form: "big" save, IE wis dex con, "small" save IE int str cha

like Ranger's two operative skills are dex and wisdom but they get dex and str saves iirc

I think the only class that gets DexWis save profs is the monk, and they're kinda supposed to be good at savs

Somebody please tell me what class(es) to pick if I want to eventually be this dude:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuNgTz5acCo

Monk/barbarian? How many levels of each? Should I take feats or max out strength or what?

>>48803111
It's safe to assume using the cantrip takes a certain amount of energy, like you can't use a level 1 spell a billion times.

The same sort of energy you get into when fighting.
If a fight went on for four hours, you'd probably get tired.

Cantrips don't have a limit to how many times they can be used because it's assumed they aren't going to be used all day long.

I'm pretty sure a wizard would get tired after flinging 1000 firebolts, same for blade ward. There's no rule about it because that just overcomplicates things.

..Also, yes because it's incredibly metagamey, and doing so would also encourage the DM to, like I said, make everybody else do the same thing.
Everybody has access to the dodge action. Why doesn't everybody use the dodge action every 6 seconds of their life as part of their character?

Heck, why not have every character be constantly paranoid and expecting a fight, so surprise rounds never happen?

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Who else is enjoying The Tome of Beasts?

>>48803348
I know. I sometimes need these things said outloud though.

>>48803370
Since the class's spellcasting will be Wisdom, I should keep that. I'm waffling a bit between Intelligence and Charisma at the moment. Leaning towards Charisma.

>>48803420
well mechanically both int and cha rarely come up.

What sort of skill proficiencies does the class get? I would imagine a Jedi would get stuff like history, religion etc more than persuasion, though a jedi with persuasion does make some sense

>>48802103
Read as written, they cannot attack the tentacle. They can only attack you, assuming they have a 15ft reach to match.

Any "I stab the tentacle grabbing me!" attacks are simply part of an action used to escape the DC16 Grapple, and inflict no damage or harm to the Octopus.

>>48803409
Been looking into getting this and the pawns.
It looked like it'd be kind of difficult to fit some of the stuff in there into a fantasy campaign. Do you agree?

>>48803490
Outta 400+ monsters maybe 75 would be really difficult to fit in.

>>48803448
Originally was going to allow "Choose any 3" setup. If I was to assign a list, Religion, Arcana, and Persuasion would definitely be on there.

>>48792233

Double entendre catcalls at noblewomen is the only use I have ever seen.

>>48795626
It's a real historical phenomenon. It just refers to the slang used by poor people to refer to... well, basically everything, but especially things that are illegal.

Think of how many terms there are for pot, for example. It's constantly evolving.

The problem, of course, is that learning it in one place doesn't mean you'd know the thieves' cant elsewhere, which basically makes it useless for adventurers outside of their own hometowns.

Why is 5e better at balancing 3pp/homebrew stuff?

What did they do right?

Paladin 10 with sunsword and helm of brilliance

Two crits using 3rd level slot for divine strike (20d8 smite), 25 STR (Dark Gift of Taar Hak) and Dueling fighting style and sunsword +2 for +22 damage , extra 2d6 fire on each attack from brilliance so 4d6 fire

Sunsword does 2d8 vs undead so two crits 8d8 and Branding smite for an extra 4d6 radiant

So all up 28d8 radiant + 4d6 radiant + 4d6 fire + 22 and then on Strahds turn he takes an extra 1d6 radiant from brilliance and 20 radiant from sunlight

Average 176 damage on your turn then an extra 23 on his

Take out the Heart of Sorrow before hand and that is a one turn spanking

You can get two crits pretty easily by using Holy Symbol of Ravenkind Hold Vampires, or having a friendly Divination wizard or have friends spam Hold Monster

>>48803722
Bonuses to rolls are constrained by the ability score cap and proficiency bonus, and because damage is given a specific range via example, i.e. cantrips, spells at given levels, and the range of different weapons. Among other things.

>>48803409
Its kinda crap

>>48803469
You have autism

What's the best way to show a country is slowly descending into civil war? I've had hobgoblins roaming the countryside, civil unrest in the capital city, and hangings for certain nobles accused of treason. Anything else? Currently the party is apathetic/ignorant of the bigger picture but I would eventually like to get them involved on one side or the other.

>>48803889
Price increases, rampant crime, mass riots

>>48803889
have something in the game world that they care about get fucked up due to the civil unrest

if there is nothing they're attached to in the world (specific npc, a store of some sort, an inn), then you've kinda failed as a gm

>>48803889
Local governments are refusing to obey orders from the central government.

Minor rebel or secessionist groups are acting more aggressive.

Foreign governments are funneling more arms and money to their proxies in the country.

Economic downturn as people are acting more conservative with their money.

All kinds of wild rumors are flying around.

>>48803919
I didn't think of rising prices or the rise of (urban) crime, that's great.

>>48803956
We just started the campaign and we have a Cormyrian noble Paladin (we're in Cormyr), an Undying light Warlock from somewhere far away, and an Assassin/Shadow monk from Turmish. So far, I've got the idea that the noble's house will throw its support behind the (corrupt) crown, the Warlock's brother heard the call for glory and joined the rebels, and the Monk... well, he's just kind of along for the ride since the noble prevented him from being tossed overboard at sea for being a stowaway, so he's bonded to the Paladin.

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>>48803469
I feel obligated to repost the FInal Boss from last week's Nehwon campaign adventure.
Fight aboard The Lamprey, a ship run up against rocks on the edge of a notorious whirlpool.
1. Giant Crabs on the topdeck
2. Traps (set by Octo against Crabs) and tentacles on the mid-deck
3. Huge Octo (who has at this point drank half the Healing potion stash in the treasure chest), stacks of cargo limiting movement, more traps in a big fight.

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Hey all, I'm trying to think of a good way to make a boss fight fun in a level 1 mini-dungeon
The basic story is as follows:
>Noble's child is possessed by a evil dragon, runs into the forest and finds shelter with a bunch of kobolds (Who worship dragons in the lore IIRC)
>Noble's father didn't know about the corruption, so beseeches the adventurers to go save him (adventure hook)
Dungeon is a simple 5-room dungeon with the steps as follows
>Wooden portcullis cave entrance, shamelessly ripped off from 1d4chan, along with a few kobold guards
>Dart hallway that's operated by two hidden kobolds
>The barracks, with a sleeping boss kobold, with a key around his neck to the next room. If the PC's attack him without doing clever stuff, the two kobolds from the hallway come in and surprise them
>Boss room where it's the noble's son with "draconic powers" including acid spray and crap statted as a yuan ti pureblood
I don't want to make it a slapfest, and I /really really/ like interactive environments for bossfights.
E.g., vampires being weak to sunlight, an alchemist bench next to the lair with a bunch of fun splash effects, etc.

>>48804013
I'm taking notes, thanks anon. These suggestions are great ways to avoid exposition.

>>48804064
Have a wandering Druid/Mendicant Priest meet them on the way to the dungeon, explain the Dragon Ghost bit, give them some sort of mechanical means to weaken the ghost's power/power over the child.

>>48804061
oh my bad, from what you said with the developing civil war I thought your campaign had been going on for a bit

I always try and get my players involved in the world by getting them attached to something. last campaign it was their rescued goblin runt companion and an old manor that was given to them as a gift for saving a local town from a forest revenant thing (leshen)

when the bbeg's legion stormed through the area and razed it and the local town they had been given the manor for saving, they wanted blood

>>48804102
Whoops, I gave you the wrong idea
It's more like magic spell that corrupts him and bends him to the evil's will, including a few black scales grow on his skin to clue the PC's that he's been corrupted in case they kill instead of incapacitate him
Not necessarily a spoopy ghost. That being said, though, I like your idea.
Maybe have a "batshit crazy" cleric hand them a flash of holy water because he sensed a demon in one of the party members

>Instead of going to help the palace, the players are planning to take advantage of the cult's attack and seize the kingdom for themselves
Oh boy, this will be interesting.

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>>48792209

>>48804171
>I always try and get my players involved in the world by getting them attached to something.
Hm, this is pretty good advice in general, I feel. I've been trying to use their Bonds to tie them up in the story but something a little more tangible and organic is probably better. Right now the idea is that the Red Wizards are destabilizing the region to prepare for an invasion, but I'm not sure if that's actually characteristic of the Red Wizards.

Please be gentle, I'm a new DM and my anus probably isn't ready.

>>48804064
Copy some other TRPG kobald's boss fight?

At 70%, the boss activate the trap (falling rock / giant pit etc) that separate the party, then the boss call in minions.

>>48804171
>tfw doing two very brief campaigns before doing the real campaign to set some part of the setting in motion
>players aren't really attached to anything beyond an NPC that they accidentally fucked over

hopefully this changes in the main campaign.

>>48804186
Eh, or Fortuneteller Lady, alternately to giving them something to help defeat it, she can give them a pot of disgusting grease that will protect them from the Evil Curse (anyone covered has resistance to Acid Damage, 8 hours (or bath), 4 doses). Now if they take advantage, you don't have to sweat TPKing them as much.

I want to do something dumb, I want to play a super hero. I plan to use no weapons, just my characters fists, but I don't want to be just another monk.
I'll be starting at level 4 so my choices are 3 levels in paladin with 1 in monk for the unarmed damage and bonus attack, or 4 levels in paladin with the tavern brawler feat.

Are there anyways to make this work and still be a credit to team or should I just ditch this idea?

>>48804323
Do this: >>48803390

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>>48804323
>Playing a super-hero in a fantasy setting

But seriously, Hercules was basically the first Super-hero in the Western world. Unless you have some incredibly over-the-top ability other adventurers cannot match, you cannot into Super Hero. Just try and play a damn decent hero for a change. You still get to wear a cape anyway.

>>48804259
I could do that, but since it's a first time for two of the players, I really want to put an emphasis on "If you're creative then you're rewarded" since every new person I dm is always seem to stick themselves in a rut where they only do what they're explicitly told to do
>>48804270
I like the idea, but maybe something more "instant" since I don't trust my PC's to have the foresight. I was thinking maybe the holy water could enfeeble the scales covering the dude's body so he would lose some AC or resistance to physical weapons

>>48803390
Monk. why would you feel you have to multiclass?

>>48804378
It depends on whether you want to extend the battle (buffing up party defense) or quicken it (weakening the boss' defense).

>>48804359
I'll be able to smite with my fists, that's super enough. I just don't know how to make it not suck ass.
If I can't I'm fine with sword and board, but I wanted something a bit different.

>>48804415
Just use the monk. After a few levels you can do 2 attacks as your action with 1 punch as a bonus. Assuming all of your 3 attacks are punches then you would do 3d6 at that point. That's not including using flurry of blows to spend 1 Ki to make your bonus action as 2 melee attacks. Thats 4d6 for just punching + damage bonus's for each

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>>48804247
>>48804262
I have found that absolutely nothing is better to get your players into your game than giving them a in-world responsibility of some sort

I mostly use forts, keeps; "Home bases" for the players so they begin to feel like they have a real center in the world and aren't just episodic murder clowns

Make the keep need repairs and upkeep, make them have to hire guards or find some way to keep the fort/manor/keep/guild hall etc safe so that bandits don't just loot it.

also they shouldn't just find it and get it or get it for some trivial task. Make the quest to get it memorable in some way; also, preferably tie it in to past events in the game.

This is basically a check list I do for every game I run for different people:

Quest wherein they save a dwarven stonemason or someone with construction experience, he owes them his life but doesn't have any way of paying them back right then

Quest wherein they make friends with/prove useful to the local populace or the local government or etc. Good to make those folks likeable too

Major Quest wherein they greatly help the local populace/government in some way that actually changes the area; maybe they take out a large bandit gang that had been accosting travelers in the area; now they're gone, and fresh trade pours into the area like never before.

As a reward, the party is given a property. Unfortunately, the property has fallen into disrepair due to (monsters, spirit etc). The local populace/government want the heroes nearby, as they've proven they are useful.

now this is where past quests tie in. Subtly remind the party of macduff the stonemason and the craftsmen from the town they saved. They enlist those folks to help them fix up their new property, etc.

connecting past events, no matter how small, really brings a campaign to life.

>>48804457
Thanks for the ideas, anon.

The main campaign is going to be about four random soldiers who happen to survive an attack on their convoy and end up getting thrown into an adventure involving the undead, a civil war and multiple nations.

If I give them a home base to care about, it could reduce murder hobo episodes and help me keep the plot moving while letting them weave the story.

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Hey lads

Playing in a very "mechanics" based campaign here soon;

DM's encouraging minmaxed characters and multiclassing and stuff for funsies.

I'm doing a gish; EKnight + Abj Wiz. We start at level 5 (3 fighter/2 wiz), and we all get 1 free feat. I'm a variant human (no other humie in the party so I went token) so I get an additional feat on top of that

thing is, i'm not a big powergamer theorycrafter etc. I'm not really sure what I should do.

do I go sword and board and take warcaster? do I take a greatsword and just shit damage?

I will have access to scag cantrips, so I plan to melee 90% of the time. Spell slots will be used exclusively on abjurations generally.

basically help me build this guy. starting stats are 16 - 11 - 15 - 16 - 10 - 10. At level 4 I'll take +1 con and dex to round them out.

>>48804673
Why not longsword (1d8 | 1d10 variant) and duelist
I mean, I don't play much of the mix/match types so I don't know how good that is in practice

>>48804247
>but I'm not sure if that's actually characteristic of the Red Wizards.

You are both correct and incorrect.
The Red Wizards are a hierarchical organization, but they do not have a "leader" other then the most powerful Zulkier (Mage-lord) present.
Some focus on military power, and some focus on trade through economic control (this was a nifty plan of theirs in 3e; get "enclaves" everywhere where they could sell magic items and guard monsters on the Cheapo to undercut the finances of local wizards and made the countries dependent upon Thayan hired help for magical support), and some focus on weird Byzantine manipulation plots.

Depends on the zulkier and wizard in question.

>>48804709
Actually, I'm retarded. You could probably go the 2-hander style since you're gonna be smacking with both hands, but casting spells with one off hand

>>48804709
>>48804741

lol that's why I'm asking, I dunno what's good.

I think duelist may not be that good, cause I won't have extra attack for a bit, so my damage will be coming from GFB. Still +2 damage is good I guess, is it better than +1 ac at all times? or re-rolling die with a 2hander?

With the warcaster feat I can use a shield and cast spells no issue. gonna be frontline tank as far as I know so maybe sword board is the way to go.

So I'm running an Aboleth in the next session or two. They've built up a bit of a cult following of beastmen.

What variety of arrogant asshole should the Aboleth be? Should it continue to keep up the theatrics and claims of divinity even after it's clear the party isn't buying it? Should it just talk down to the PCs about how ignorant they are?

So.

Countercharm.

How do we improve it? Or is it fine as is? I keep seeing people say it's pretty meh.

>>48804768
Worse. It remembers the party Cleric's Great great great great great great great Grandfather, a dickass thief who shiv'd the Aboleth once and now his impossibly circuitous plan for revenge shall come to pass!

>>48804775
Let the bard expend a bardic inspiration to use it as a reaction in response to a charm or frighten effect.

>>48804457
Thanks anon, I copypasta'd this for later.

>>48804726
Hm, maybe I'll just make up an organization, or maybe it's a shadow war between the Thayans and the Harpers. I haven't thought much farther than the idea of the civil war being used to destabilize the region for X benefit. I'll see how my players deal with the civil war before deciding too much.

>>48804726
They absolutely have a leader, the lich Szass Tam

>>48797115

I'm not sure it's really 5e yet. Base speed is low compared to other races. "Ignore encumbrance" is a bit vague and the actual named "encumbrance" mechanic is optional to begin with. A pure racial bonus to AC is a bit outside the 5e design paradigm. "Swift action" isn't a 5e mechanic, and Defense Curl is kinda meh, giving a really complicated and headachey set of drawbacks for a questionable benefit.

Off the top of my head I'd have gone with:
+2 Con, +1 Wis
Small
Lumbering Gate: Base walking speed is 25 feet and ignores difficult terrain.
Prehensile Tail: A Pangoll may interact with two different objects per turn without expending an action. In addition, a Pangoll may interact with a non-magical object as a reaction.
Defense Curl: Attacks against a prone Pangoll ignore advantage, and a prone Pangoll receives damage resistance against non-magical ammunition and environmental damage.
Pangoll weapons training: A Pangoll is proficient in all crossbows they can use and ignores disadvantage when firing from prone. Pangolls are proficient at any task involving the creation, maintainance, or repair of crossbows and crossbow bolts.
Languages: Human and Pangoll. Pangoll is written as a single wavy line studded with breaks and dotted sections. A Pangoll walking along soft terrain such as loose soil, sand, or snow may opt to use their tail to write messages as they pass. Treat said messages as if they were footprints.

It should be at least reasonably balanced (I built it mostly on the Dragonborn chassis,) has a unique niche in their item interaction bonuses, and gives them some perks for staying close to the ground. The Pangolin language being written around tail-script should give some flavor and might make for some good story hooks, as well.

>>48798236

Shut the fuck up, get a system designed for what you want, and stop wasting 5eg's time asking for pointers on driving a square peg into a round hole.

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>>48805294
>didn't read the replies
>didn't realize I already got my answers
>being this mad

>>48802401

>5e is easily the best edition of D&D to be released after Wizards of the Coast bought it

You added the right wording to be technically correct, so uh..yeah. Yep.

>>48792264

Or you could just turn off the optional chapter altogether.

I mean, feats are explicitly optional.

Honestly, after having recently played a game with them off, I found my players making much more creative characters because I turn off 90% of their min/max options. I'm honestly going to stick with this forever now. Or at the very least, remove variant human option.

Besides, level 1 with a feat really jacks up game balance.
>"Oh cool! I have a list of feats to choose from to make my character unique an interesting!" says player
>Picks the pole-arm master feat, great-weapon fighter feat, or sharpshooter feat
>Stacks that shit onto fighter, ranger, or warlock
>Every time.

This is what I get for taking in a group that use to primarily play mathfinder.

>>48805359

Those replies aren't going to save you. You're going to fuck this up and you're gonna come back here and you're gonna piss and moan about the players and the rules and you're gonna waste every more of our time and the only consolation we're gonna get out of it is that you personally are going to waste the most time out of anyone. You'd be better off dropping the idea and focusing on SJW-media tapdancing instead and leaving everyone else out of it.

>>48805485
>you're wasting your time! says someone yelling at another person on the Internet

>>48792168
Is there a commonly accepted houseruling on how to improve Rangers?

>>48805527
No. No one can agree on what Rangers even ARE, much less how to best mechanically represent one.

I think most people have given up honestly. Maybe discussion on Ranger fixes will come up again once WOTC releases their "fix" but until that day....

>>48803834
In what way?

>>48804063
Quite amazing.

>>48792168
I'm a little confused by 5e. Where are all the splatbooks?

>>48805550
What? I thought Rangers were basically fightier, tougher Rogues with skills optimized for tracking and crafting.

>>48805621
You'd think so. But if I had a shekkel for every time I gave a similar response and one of my players or a fellow DM tried to correct me and explain what a Ranger REALLY is, I wouldn't be in crippling debt.

>>48805642
Why do they even get spells?

>>48805527
No, but consensus ranger is arguably just that. It takes common good homebrew fixes, and combines them

>>48805621
That leaves out pets their drizzzzzzt selves totes must have, and the druid lite casting

>>48805621
See, I thought a Ranger was a Fighter with wilderness survival skills.

>>48805601
>Where are all the splatbooks?
Being released at a rate of one per year to cut costs, increase the focus on individual books, and maintain 5e's balance and manageability.

>>48805621
>>48805642
>>48805675
>>48805697
>>48805710
>>48805714
why does ranger even exist?

>>48805710
Why do they even need druid spells? The animal companion should be enough. Just remove the casting element.

>>48805054
No, he's just the most powerful zulkier. Frequently in fact other zulkier's butted heads with him; a few (the Zulkir of Evocation especially) wanted to continue the military route, while Tam and a few others favored the long-term solution of mercantile domination:

If you mean the Sauron Knockoff they turned Szass Tak into, I think we can safely say that like every other stupid setting change caused by 4e it's been undone. Seriously, the entire continent has been physically reshaped to literally make it like the 4e changed never happened, and huge civilizations are obliterated literally overnight leaving ruins convieniently in the place where ruins already were located prior to 3e and 4e changes just to remove them from the setting, and basically only a few changes (Vaasa and Eltuguard mostly) stick around at all, and even then in a vastly lessons state.

5e's FR is the "We Are Super Sorry We Did All That Dumb Shit" Edition.

>>48805729
>>48805724
And this entire reply group is why theres no fix, and even consensus isnt perfect

I just use consensus though. Iv yet to come across someone who cares enough about a specific aspect to bot use it

>>48804673
any powergamer minmaxer whatever got any input for this

>>48805723
What splatbooks have they released then? I don't see anything in the 5e Mega aside from Adventurer stuff, unless the SCAG was the one.

>>48805770
SCAG and EEPC are it so far, though EEPC was more a PDF freebie from a scrapped splat. Still worth checking out.

>>48805780
EEPC has as much or more stuff than SCAG, doesn't it?

>>48805601 >>48805770
WotC finally admitted the truth they didn't want to admit; you can't treat D&D books like Magic the Gathering cards and then expect to fiscally come ahead. They don't sell well enough and even when they do sell people don't buy them in the numbers required to make up for printing costs no matter what they do, and printing out more content just results in more profit loss.

So they're saving money by printing very, very few books and focusing both on PDF's and outsourcing a lot of work to third-party so they don't have to devote time and resources to it themselves.

>>48805756
Consensus is...alright. I once found a decent fix on Giantitp, but the guy who made it tripped on the finish line, so to speak. If you want a good Beastmaster or Hunter, he's got it. The caster archetype is fucked though.

>>48805792
It has some new races and a lot of new spells.
This edition is fairly light on "official" content and will continue to be so until basically someone finds a way to stop the print industry from costing so much money and making back so little.
You're either going to have to either make up your own stuff or go for third-party stuff instead.

>>48805756
No it doesn't. There's only one guy asking why Ranger exists, and the reason is
>For roleplaying purposes.

If you want a Fighter that's not just a brawler and is more skill based that's what Ranger is basically for. Adding in the animal companion is supposed to add versatility and combat ability, and spells are supposed to replace the at-wills from 4e. It's just badly handled.

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>>48800760
>5 human fighters

>fighting a giant
>one grapples each limb
>the remaining one sits on its chest and slaps it until it passes out

>fighting a dragon
>they all grab onto its tail and Mario 64 it into walls

>fighting a group of soldiers/orcs/goblins/etc
>they group-throw carts and boulders at them like artillery

If they all have a proficiency in Athletics this could prove to be the most testosterone fueled campaign in existence.

>>48805724
Because of Aragorn.

>>48805795
>focusing on PDFs
All of the PDF stuff they've released so far have been free. UAs, the adventure supplements for the basic rules, the adventure previews, and even the EEPC.

The only PDF stuff that is charged for are AL adventures through DMs Guild, and that's to support the individual adventure writers so they don't have to pay them up-front for what is basically a huge advertising campaign (Adventurers League). OneBookShelf and the authors take a significant cut of every sale there, with a solid 50% to the author.

>>48805842
Never said they were getting paid for the PDF's.
Just said that they were focusing on it more.

>>48800069
Opinion received

Didnt realise this was a competition on who can have the most fun

>>48798236

There are some rules on the Wizards website about some options for magic you could use in DnD Modern. Stuff like a new Patron for Warlocks, a new arcane tradition for Wizards, Hacking checks (along with a toolkit to allow you to add proficency bonus to hacking checks) and of course, new spells.

>>48805842
>and that's to support the individual adventure writers so they don't have to pay them up-front for what is basically a huge advertising campaign

So the adventure league stuff IS written by completely different authors? Because that would make so much sense why they're so hit and miss.

>Play through one AL session
>Adventure is well paced, very fun, quite detailed, and a blast to get through
>Play through the next AL session
>Session is an absolute chore with lots of slow, boring parts, a piss poor plot hook that railroads the players, and even the adventure itself is poorly formatted and thrown together, making it a slog to read through

>>48805903
Thank you for the suggestion! I've been picking out bits and pieces of that pdf for the last few days. Probably not going to use most or even any of the archetypes, but the tech and spell sections are very cool.

>>48802759
>I just don't know how many Japanese samurai are running around early renaissance fantasy Europe
I don't know how many Japanese people were in Europe at the time, but I'm pretty sure Europeans had started trading with Japan by the renaissance. So there's historical precedent. Of course it is fantasy so how much that actually matters is up to the DM.

Going to be playing my first D&D campaign soon, playing a Solar Knight off the wiki. Was hoping for some feedback on my first time creating a character, trying to avoid total angst.

Davlamin Pelor
22 years old, 5'11, avg build
Adventures for discovery and the sake of adventure, hoping to earn a sum of wealth to help his parents.
Positive disposition, highy optimistic, agreeable, impulsive, highly curious, highly superstitious, naive
-Parents both still alive, mother is the village apothecary while father is a simple farmer
-Was educated by a monk at the local Sun Temple
-Treasures a simple silver necklace given to him by his parents
-Chose to become an apprentice Knight of the Sun after the knight posted at his village saved his mother from a pack of wolves
-Lawful Good
-Moral Code: Will go to any length to help those in need, often recklessly so
-Heavily religious (for the Sun of course)
-Personal Beliefs: Wants to live

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>>48806070

>playing a Solar Knight off the wiki

please don't

please just play a devotion paladin

>>48806110
any particular reason? The whole group is playing wiki classes, the DM requested it

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>>48806116
That's such a stupid idea, I can't believe it.

>>48806127
But why? I really have no idea

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>>48806070
I really recommend sticking to the stuff in the actual official books, ESPECIALLY for a newbie

>>48806116
not >>48806110 but jesus, really? Is this some kind of super heavily homebrewed game?

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>>48806116

>The whole group is playing wiki classes, the DM requested it

Why?

Either you're trolling me, your DM is trolling you, or your DM is fucking stupid.

Everything on dandwiki is notorious for being absolute garbage and if this is your first D&D experience then I honestly feel sorry for you.

So I was thinking of making a homebrew setting for 5e, and reading through the Core rulebooks it looks like there are only 8 Domains for gods this time around. Is that right?

Death, Knowledge, Life, Light, Nature, Tempest, Trickery, War

>>48806150

Don't forget Arcana in SCAG.

>>48806142
>>48806144
It is a pretty heavy homebrew. I have good friends that have played with him for a while and seem to be enjoying themselves.

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>>48806136
>>48806174

Homebrew and "I got it off the internets" content is often the equivalent of eating at a shitty hole-in-the-wall restaurant. Odds are good that what you get will just make you sick, because ti hasn't been run thought any sort of testing or quality control.

It is possible to make good homebrew, but you have to know what you are doing, and most people don't.

>>48806203
Welp, here's hoping.

>>48806174
>>48806203

I'm reading the solar knight page right now and it is completely awful, it doesn't fit 5e and I doubt it's balanced. If everyone else is using equally awful dandwiki homebrew then my greatest expectation is that you are going to be massively outperformed. It's going to be a massive mess regardless.

>>48806158
Oh, thanks. I haven't read the Adventurer's Guide yet.

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>>48806174
Oh wow, ok....
Just keep in mind that this game is not indicative of the actual system. Give the official rules a thorough reading so that you A) understand how and why your friend changed the system and B) don't unknowingly develop habits that only work in this one game.

Maybe even go to an encounters game at your FLGS

>>48806228
>ability that grants nearby allies +1 AC
That's the lamest shit ever.
>Sun Strike which grants 2d4 added radiant once per rest
Okay that's a neat little fluff thing--
>at level 13 you get 4d8 radiant with the Sun Strike and can use it 3 times per rest
Okay wait, what kind of bullshit scaling is this? A Deva (CR10) can deal 4d8 radiant every attack INDEFINITELY.

This hurts to read. I hate homebrew classes, man. I fucking hate em.

Hey guys I'm looking at running a game for a couple friends. Most likely there is only going to be a couple of us. What adivce do you have for running for less than 4-5 players (2-3 most likely).

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>>48806311

>Starting at 17th level, you may link a willing creature you can touch with the sun. This creature gains one of the following features for 1 minute.

>advantage on all saving throws
>+1 Ac
>deals an extra 1d4 radiant damage on melee attack rolls

>one of the following features
>one

>>48806335

Gonna need a little more information. What are you concerned about? Balance? Are you running your own campaign, or using a prewritten one?

I have some, probably frequently asked and maybe stupid, questions for you guys.

The Ranger's companion states that when you get it at level three you must pick a beast of up to 1/4 CR and up to medium size, can I choose a swarm of bats/rats/ravens then?
>lf the beast dies, you can obtain another one by spending 8 hours magicaIly bonding with another beast that isn't hostile to you, either the same type of beast as before or a different one.
>either the same type of beast as before or a different one.
With this, are you stuck with the same restrictions as when you first get the feature, or can you get a large or huge beast, or higher CR?
Finally for a Druid's wild shape, there's nothing stopping me from turning into a CR 0 beast or swarm besides the normal restrictions on wild shape, correct?

Are there any good Artificer Homebrews floating around.

>>48805734
The SCAG doesn't mention it but in Tyranny of Dragons it is explicitly stated that he is the absolute ruler of Thay

>>48806414
The SCAG doesn't mention it because Thay isn't on the Sword Coast. And because the SCAG is trash. Just tell Ed to pen some more setting books you asses.

>>48805585
CR all over the place and a lot of the monsters don't seem to fit in with the Monster Manual